ORLANDO, FLA. -- He already has been through one failed NBA head coaching opportunity, rife with acrimony and sniping from one of the league's playing giants.

"The Master of Panic" is what Shaquille O'Neal once called his former coach in Miami, Stan Van Gundy, a stylishly off-the-rack guy in a business replete with designer suits.

Mark J. Terrill / The Associated PressAs a youngster, Orlando Magic Coach Stan Van Gundy just wanted to follow in his dad's footsteps and coach at a Division III school. Little did he know he'd wind up on the NBA's biggest stage, the Finals, against the Los Angeles Lakers, one of the league's storied franchises.

There's nothing pretentious about a coaching lifer who cut his teeth as a youngster trailing behind his father, Bill, who knocked about coaching small college basketball teams in California and New York.

Once was a time, when Bill Van Gundy was recovering from surgery to remove a brain tumor, that Stan and younger brother Jeff, in seventh and fourth grade respectively, compiled scouting reports on upcoming opponents as their dad convalesced.

Now on basketball's biggest stage, Stan is finally being appreciated for the talent which he possesses, drawing Xs and Os, giving his players free rein to launch seemingly ill-advised jump shots and helping to push his inexperienced Orlando Magic into a pair of overtime NBA Finals games, both losses, against the prohibitively favored and more experienced Los Angeles Lakers.

Not bad for a guy who figured he'd just follow in his dad's footsteps, driving the team bus, toiling in dimly lit snake pits of gyms, sweeping the floor and washing the uniforms.

"First of all," Van Gundy said, "when I got into coaching, that's where I expected to be coaching. That's actually where I dreamed of coaching, that I'd get a good Division III job somewhere and settle down, and I did all those things.

"I was a Division III head coach at 24 (Castleton State College in Vermont) and I was making my money lining soccer and lacrosse fields and putting out archery targets so I could coach basketball and things like that. That was fine. I certainly didn't go into coaching thinking I'd ever make any money at it, or coach on TV or any of that. I just wanted to coach. That's what I think I got from my dad, just a pure love of coaching."

The often rumpled, always loud Van Gundy, however, has never lost sight of his coaching roots, an odyssey that eventually brought him to Canisius College and Fordham as an assistant before another head coaching job at Massachusetts-Lowell. He then took a trip to Division I for three seasons at Wisconsin, including one as head coach before becoming an NBA assistant with the Heat under Pat Riley, upon the recommendation of brother Jeff, who'd succeeded Riley as head coach of the New York Knicks.

"Coaching at those levels," Van Gundy said, "I think the biggest thing you learn is that there's a lot of great coaches at every level. I mean, I was at the Division III level, and I got outcoached a lot of times. I was at the Division II level, and I got outcoached a lot of times, and there's some coaches at some of those schools right now who've got it in the back of their minds, and looking at me and saying, 'You've got to be kidding me.'

"There was a guy at Bridgeport, Connecticut, Bruce Webster, he beat me nine out of 10 times when I was at Lowell. You've got to be good in this business, but you've also got to get a lot of breaks. If you don't realize that, if you really think you're sitting here because of your genius or anything, I don't know. Maybe your background is different. But I got my butt kicked at every level, including this one, so I sort of know where I stand in this profession."

It took time for the Magic's players to become accustomed to Van Gundy's boisterous nature and his high-volume approach. Last year Orlando won 52 games, and this season it was 59 and the Southeast Division championship, culminated by a run through the playoffs and an Eastern Conference championship over the team with the best record in the league, the Cleveland Cavaliers.

"When we first heard (him), it was like, 'This guy screams too much; it's starting to get on our nerves,'¤" forward Rashard Lewis recalled this season. "He talks loud. He coaches loud. He's trying to get his point across. It pays off in the long run."

Van Gundy's on-court tactical ability was showcased in Game 2 when he drew up a play with :06 remaining, an alley-oop on a sideline out-of-bounds play from Hedo Turkoglu to Courtney Lee. Lee's layup was just a little too hard, but the brilliance of the strategy was not lost on the player who was caught up in the screen set by Lewis that freed Lee's path to the basket.

"Great play by a great coach," was the way Kobe Bryant described it.

Van Gundy likely will be rewarded with a contract extension when the season concludes, ensuring his financial future, making the days of lining soccer fields distant memories.

The money will be nice, but he'll still be an off-the-rack guy.

"You learn all the time," said Van Gundy, who reportedly makes about $4 million annually. "I mean, I think that obviously I learned in Miami from that experience. I can't just point to one or two things. I think every game you coach, and every year you go along, you hopefully learn and get better. And it's generally from your mistakes."

Jimmy Smith can be reached at jsmith@timespicayune.com or 504.826.3814.